Business and other types of enterprises (generally referred to hereafter as “organizations”) create enormous numbers of records in the course of their operation. Laws and regulations govern the length of time for preserving many of these records. For example, organizations need not hold employee time-keeping records longer than three years.
The length of time that records are preserved depends on the type of record involved and the legal requirements that apply to the record type. Legal requirements depend in many cases on the jurisdiction (state law) involved. The time specified for preserving a record is its retention period. Records are often classified into groups that have similar functions and identical retention periods. The process of storing and classifying records, setting retention rules for records, and eventually destroying or deleting them is call records management.
For legal and space reasons, it is wise for enterprises to destroy records that need no longer be preserved. State, Federal, and decisional laws specify the retention periods for many classes of records. Additionally, business and administrative needs for records are also taken into consideration when developing retention rules and corresponding retention periods. Where large numbers of records are involved, the process of setting retention rules for records and identifying records whose retention periods have expired is burdensome.
Donald Skupsky is a recognized expert on records management in the United States. Information Requirements Clearinghouse is a business that presents Mr. Skupsky's opinions on records management. Mr. Skupsky has published Records Retention Procedures, 1995, ISBN: 0-929316-03-7, and available from the International Association of Records Managers and Administrators.
Typically, larger organizations comprise a number of departments. Each department has a set of records that is unique relative to other departments of the organization. For purposes of this description, each department has a person assigned to it, referred to hereafter as a user, who has responsibility for managing the records of the department. A single user may of course have responsibility for more than one department.